


Development

by cinomarsh



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, Gen, Human Experimentation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-12
Updated: 2016-05-12
Packaged: 2018-06-07 22:41:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6828106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinomarsh/pseuds/cinomarsh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cave Johnson is working on Aperture's biggest project, Artificial Intelligence, behind Caroline' s back, but he hasn't got much time. Pre-storyline, still inspired by Geekenders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Development

Cave Johnson coughed, loudly and violently. He attempted to cover his mouth as the hacking arched his back and made his eyes water. His lungs and throat felt bone dry after every breath. He took a sip from a glass of water on his polished desk and grimaced at the way his chest stung.

He would've preferred something a lot stronger than water, but Caroline had taken all the alcohol in his office and hidden it somewhere. She'd even known about the flask behind the bible on the bookshelf. She was determined, that was for sure.

It hadn't been very long since Aperture's CEO had contracted moon rock poisoning. Cave was struggling to hide it, of course, but it had seriously taken its toll on him. His terrible cough was getting worse by the day, and he was finding it more and more difficult to find the energy to get up and about. He tried, though. He always tried. And Caroline had been trying, too.

Caroline had been working for him for years, since she was very young. Eighteen? Nineteen? Cave couldn't remember exactly, but he'd never forget her first few months at Aperture. She'd been so excited to start, so passionate. She shared his love of Science in a way no one else had. She worked nights, weekends and holidays. He'd never had a better assistant, and he never wanted one. He'd started to depend on her for anything and everything. The company could hardly function without her. And after the poisoning, she had been there to help him with that, too. She reminded him to take medicine, helped him get where he needed to be, wouldn't let him overexert himself, even when he wanted to. She was invaluable to him, in every way.

As he contemplated wether or not to ask the lab boys if any of them had anything he could drink, he heard a firm knock at his office door.

"Come in." He called gruffly.

Caroline, a stack of files in her arms, swung open the door and entered the spacious office. Cave felt almost a kind of relief at seeing her.

"Oh, Caroline, it's you." His tone was gentler now.

"Of course it's me, sir," she replied, crossing the room and placing the files on his desk, "you asked for me."

"Well you're the only person in this damn place who knows where anything is." He told her, chuckling. Her brown eyes met his and she smiled, but then her expression turned to concern.

"Mr. Johnson, you look pale."

He sighed.

"Well, I'm dyin', kid. It happens." His voice said it didn't worry him, that he'd accepted it, but he noticed her flinch when he said it. She looked away, and Cave couldn't help but notice how tired she looked. His stomach twisted at the thought.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Caroline asked, straightening and meeting his gaze again. She wasn't as young as she was in his memories, lines around her eyes and mouth growing gradually deeper, but her voice was the same. And her smile.

He thought about asking her to get him another file or two. He didn't really need them but her presence brightened the room considerably. Unfortunately, he knew he had important business to address today.

"Nope, that's all, thanks."

Caroline nodded and left, closing the door gently behind her.

Cave listened to her footsteps receding down the hallway. As soon as the sound was gone, he stood, bracing himself against the desk as he rose and coughing again. Usually, Caroline would stay and help him when he needed to get somewhere, but he had to make do. She couldn't know what he was doing today.

After the burning in his lungs subsided, he took a deep breath strode purposefully out of his office and down the brightly lit hallway.

The place was quiet, only the murmur of concerned scientists from labs he passed breaking the calm. It had a sort of sterile feel to it, and had ever since the cutbacks. It hurt to think about the way it had been in the beginning, full of busy movement and sound, the centre for scientific development and progress. He and Caroline had poured their hearts into it. And maybe, he reminded himself, if he was successful in this project, it could go back to the way it was.

Cave stopped at an unassuming grey door, just like any other in the hall. He looked around to make sure he was alone before producing a key from his pocket and ever so carefully unlocking the door and sneaking inside.

The interior of the room alone wasn't particularly unusual; a long desk ran along one wall and was topped with a computer, some notebooks and a clipboard, pens and more than a few empty cups of coffee. Filing cabinets sat in corners and two very frazzled looking scientists seemed to be arguing with each other. What was unusual about this room was the examination table set up in the centre, and the creation that sat on top of it.

The thing was about the size and shape of a basketball. It looked like a strange toy someone had left lying around. It had thin handles at opposite ends of its metal casing and docking ports on two of its sides, one of which was connected to the computer via an extension cord. Facing him was what appeared at first glance to be a closed eye: A horizontal slit between two half-moon metal plates. Below it on its grey metal surface were several markings he didn't recognize, and one that he did; The Aperture Science logo.

The scientists noticed him come in and turned quickly to face him, wearing matching expressions of barely concealed embarrassment.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Johnson!" the first, an excitable young man, greeted him cheerily. The second scientist, who looked much more tired than her comrade, elbowed him gently in the ribs.

Cave nodded a greeting, trying to remember to stand up straight and not slouch. This was his facility, after all. He had to look it.

"What have you got for me there?" He asked, reaching out to touch the thing on  
the table. The woman, whose name happened to be Sophia, quickly pushed his hand off course, immediately averting her gaze to the floor.

"Um, it's a prototype for the Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System, sir. We thought you'd want to be here when we tested it for the first time." She told him quickly.

"So... This is the thing that's going to be running my whole company?" Cave looked at it skeptically.

"Well, no, this is a Personality Core. One of these will be hooked up to a much larger vessel, if all goes well. You'll get uploaded into one of these, which'll hold all of your personality and intelligence and that, and then the bigger machine will be the one to actually do anything." The other scientist piped up, proud of his plan.

Cave sighed again.

"Okay, I've gotta be honest with you two for a minute."

The pair were on full alert.

"The thing is... I'm not gonna be in one of those things. My brain... it's too damaged apparently. It wouldn't work."

The two scientists stared at each other for a moment before anyone spoke.

"So, who's gonna go in the core?"

"Eric!" The woman hissed at her colleague.

"I'll tell everyone as soon at the machine is done." Cave told them quietly, which was rather unusual for him.

Eric and Sophia nodded, looking at each other.

Cave clapped his hands together.

"SO. Who's in that one, then?" He asked, pointing to the dormant core.

Eric scrambled to the table and picked up the clipboard, reading it over.

"Umm... Kevin. Linford. Astronomer from the research department."

"Ah. Did you tell him what you were going to do."

"Yeah. He wouldn't let us. We had to knock him out." Eric's voice was quiet.

Cave groaned.

"I hate that. People come to work here and say they want to do science, but then what? They see it up close and they don't wanna do it anymore! Cowards, all of 'em. If you work here, you do science. You don't whine about it."

Eric nodded fervently.

"Alright, are we gonna start it up?" Cave asked, his voice strong and determined. The voice of a leader.

Sophia darted over to the computer and began to type, intent and focused. Lines of code that Cave couldn't make sense of appeared on the screen, rushing by like lightning. Eric was biting his nails.

"Okay... I'm bringing him online..." Sophia's voice came from across the room.

Cave watched in awe as the creation on the table started making a low humming noise. Slowly, the little metal shutters on its face began to open, revealing a lit yellow optic that resembled a child's drawing of the sun. The optic moved around, seemingly surveying the room.

"He's up." Sophia alerted the two men staring at the robot.

"Um, hello?" Eric greeted it cautiously. The thing's optic settled on him for a moment before continuing to stare at anything and everything else.

"Hello?" He tried again, with no response this time. Everyone waited with baited breath for the core to do something, anything, but it just kept looking around the room as if it hadn't a care in the world.

Cave was growing impatient.

"So this is it? You brought me down here to show me a fancy night light?" His frustration sent him into another fit of excruciating coughs.

Sophia's hands shook.

"It- It says its receiving audio and visual input, so it can actually take in what's happening... I don't know why it isn't responding... Maybe we just have to give it some time, some space-"

"Space?"

Three sets of eyes landed on the tiny robot.

"Did it just say space? That wasn't just me, right?" Cave asked cautiously.

"Space!" This time there was no question who had spoken. The frantic, electronic voice certainly didn't belong to any of the humans in the room. Sophia and Eric stared at the thing in horror.

"Space. Wanna go to space. Gonna be in space. Me. In space. I love space." The core was looking directly at Cave.

"What did you say that, uh... Kevin used to do here?" He asked.

"Astronomy, sir." Eric replied, his voice a whisper.

There was a short silence. Then, Cave grinned and laughed, loudly.

"That's incredible," he beamed, "absolutely amazing!"

The scientists exchanged a look.

"This... really isn't what we were hoping for, sir..." Sophia began nervously.

"Maybe not, but you wanted his personality, right? He's clearly still got it!"

"Space!" The core added, seemingly in agreement.

"Well yes, partially, but he needs his intelligence, and-"

"Then do more tests! Hell, do a million tests for all I care! Just get it done!"

"But what do we do with this one?" Eric asked carefully.

"Oh, that doesn't matter. Put it in a box or something." Cave said dismissively.

"You're doing great work here, you two. Keep it up!" He grinned again, his famous, million-dollar grin, before he turned and left the room.

As he walked back to his office, he thought about what the facility would look like when the Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System was in charge. It would make a comeback in the business world with its new technology. He obviously didn't want to leave. Aperture was his life's work, his dream. But he knew that it would be taken care of, because he knew exactly who was going to run it.

Caroline.

He knew Caroline, and Caroline knew Aperture. She loved it as much as he did, and she was the only one he knew who could properly put science first, without anything getting in the way. She would know what had to be done, and she would do it.

And he had to admit, the whole "terminal moon rock poisoning" thing had really made him think about life, and what he learned from that reflection was that aging was terrible. He'd watched his beloved company run into the ground and his health deteriorate in a matter of months. Time was slowly taking away everything he loved. And he truly didn't want it to get to Caroline. Scientific, clever, talented, passionate, beautiful Caroline. The thought of her, perfect and unaffected long after he was gone, made him proud. He could give her everything. He would save her.

Wether she let him or not.


End file.
